Chapter 12 - Plan B.
Olivia refused to explain Plan B over the phone.
She agreed to meet only in a place she chose herself.
Thirty minutes later, Claire, Evelyn, and Miles entered a crowded public library three blocks from the Bellmont Grand.
Olivia sat at a table near the reference desk wearing a baseball cap and an oversized coat.
She looked exhausted.
Claire sat across from her.
"You could have told me you were okay."
"I didn't know who was watching your phone."
"You scared me."
"I'm sorry."
Claire believed that too.
Olivia placed a flash drive on the table.
"This is the real copy."
Evelyn did not touch it yet.
"Real copy of what?"
"Dennis's spreadsheet before somebody edited it."
Claire frowned.
"The file you sent earlier wasn't the original?"
"It was the version I downloaded from Dennis's laptop yesterday."
"Then what's this?"
Olivia took a breath.
"I photographed the screen before I downloaded anything."
She opened her phone.
The photographs showed spreadsheet rows that did not match the file Evelyn had received.
There was no J.B. APPROVAL entry.
There was no C. BENNETT entry.
Those rows had been added later.
Evelyn leaned closer.
"Someone altered the file before you downloaded it."
Olivia nodded.
"Dennis had left the laptop unlocked in the service office for maybe thirty seconds."
"Why were you photographing it?"
Olivia looked embarrassed.
"Because I saw my own employee ID beside a payment code."
Claire's eyes narrowed.
"Were they paying you?"
"No."
Olivia swiped to the next photograph.
The line beside her employee ID read LIABILITY OPTION B.
Claire felt her stomach drop.
"Plan B."
Olivia nodded.
Evelyn studied the other rows.
"What does it mean?"
Olivia opened a second photograph.
A note column was visible on the far right.
Beside Claire's employee ID were the words PRIMARY INCIDENT SUBJECT.
Beside Olivia's were the words SECONDARY WITNESS RISK.
Beside Malik Grant's were the words ACCESS LOG EXPOSURE.
Miles's expression hardened.
"They weren't listing people to pay."
"They were listing people to discredit."
Claire finished the sentence.
Olivia nodded.
"Plan B was what happened if you wouldn't take the money."
Evelyn looked at Claire.
"A second allegation."
Olivia slid another photograph forward.
The line read B - INVENTORY LOSS / GUEST PROPERTY.
Claire stared at it.
"They planned to accuse me of stealing."
"Not necessarily you."
Olivia looked miserable.
"The note says 'subject or supporting staff.'"
Claire thought of the employee files in suite 1804.
Anyone could have been selected.
The operation did not depend on one person being guilty.
It depended on someone being vulnerable.
Miles's phone buzzed.
He checked it.
"We have a problem."
Claire gave him a tired look.
"Only one?"
"Hotel security found a missing guest bracelet in your staff locker."
Olivia covered her mouth.
Claire felt nothing for two seconds.
Then anger returned so quickly it almost made her laugh.
"Plan B."
Evelyn stood.
"Do not go back to the hotel yet."
Claire stood too.
"Why not?"
"Because whoever planted it wants a reaction."
"Good."
"Claire."
"No."
She looked directly at Evelyn.
"I have spent twenty-four hours letting other people decide where I can stand, when I can speak, whether I can work, and whether my name is believable."
Evelyn said nothing.
"I'm going back."
Miles spoke carefully.
"If you enter the hotel, media may see you."
"Then they can see me walking in with nothing to hide."
Olivia grabbed Claire's hand.
"They'll say you planted the evidence against them."
"They already say I attacked a guest for no reason."
Claire squeezed her friend's hand.
"If I keep hiding, they get to make hiding look like guilt."
Evelyn considered her for a long moment.
Then she nodded.
"We do it properly."
Back at the Bellmont, the service locker area had been sealed.
Hotel security supervisor Malik Grant waited outside.
Claire recognized his name from the list.
He looked furious.
"I didn't touch your locker."
"I didn't think you did."
"The lock log says it was opened at four fourteen this morning."
Claire looked at him.
"I was home."
"I know."
"Who opened it?"
Malik held up a tablet.
"Your badge."
Claire stared at the screen.
Her employee ID had been used.
"My badge was in my purse all night."
"Then somebody cloned it."
Evelyn asked the obvious question.
"Who can clone employee badges?"
Malik answered without hesitation.
"Security administrators. Dennis Crowe had approval access."
Claire looked toward the locker-room camera.
"Show me the footage."
Malik's jaw tightened.
"That camera went offline at four twelve."
Claire nearly laughed again.
"Of course it did."
Then Malik smiled for the first time.
"But whoever did this forgot something."
He led them into the service corridor.
At the ceiling near the loading dock was a small mirrored dome.
"Old fire-code camera. Separate system."
Evelyn's eyes sharpened.
"Does it cover the locker entrance?"
"Barely."
"Is it recording?"
Malik held up a thumb drive.
"Always."
They watched the four fourteen footage in the security office.
A figure in a hotel maintenance jacket entered the locker area.
The face was partly hidden by a cap.
Then the person turned toward the loading dock.
Claire recognized the silver triangular lapel pin attached beneath the jacket collar.
Graham Pike.
Miles immediately reached for his phone.
Claire stared at the frozen image.
The crisis consultant had personally entered the hotel at four in the morning to plant evidence in her locker.
Evelyn exhaled slowly.
"Now we have him."
Malik shook his head.
"Maybe."
"What does that mean?"
Malik opened a second camera file.
At four twenty-three, Pike left through the loading dock.
He was not alone.
May you like
A man walked beside him.
Adrian Vale.
